THE SUN WORSHIP WITH THE ROMANIANS DOINA IONESCU, CRISTIANA DUMITRACHE Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy Str. Cutitul de Argint 5, 40557 Bucharest, Romania Email:
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[email protected] Abstract. We summarize the main aspects of the solar cult with the Romanian people and the populations that lived on their territory. We highlight the origin of the solar cult and its evidence with the ancestors of the Romanians, the Dacians, as well as its manifestations in present popular art and other aspects of Romanians life. Key words: astronomy history, Sun. 1. INTRODUCTION The Sun, our day star, has always impressed people all over the world, who included it in their cultures. The Sun gives warmth, light, life and therefore it is associated with a powerful symbolism in all forms of culture. There are many stud- ies concerning the worshipping of the Sun in different cultures such as the ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Asian, Greek, as well as in the European countries. We note here the book of Bhatnagar and Livingston (2005), that presents a nice review of solar worship all over the world. One can speak about the existence of a solar cult on the territory of Romania beginning with ancient times, more precisely with the Neolithic. This cult was taken over by the Romanians ancestors, called the Getae-Dacians, and it has continued to exist until nowadays. First, let us say a word about the ancient inhabitants of Romania. The hearth of present day Romania was initially inhabited by the Getae, a branch of the Thra- cians, a people of Indo-European origin who were archaeologically attested on the territory between the Balkan Mountains (South), The Forest Mountains (North), the Black Sea shore (East) and beyond the river Siret (West).